MECONOPSIS ACULEATA, Prickly poppy.
Guddikum, Gudia, HIND. I Kanta, . . PANJAB.
Meconopsis is from tovte.no, a poppy, and a resemblance, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Papaveraceaa, and formerly referred to Papaver. This species is found at Kaghan, in the Sutlej valley, between Rampur and Sungnam, at an elevation of 10,000 to 12,000 feet ; also in Nepal, Chur, Kedarkanta, and Pir Panjal. Flowers blue-purple, showy. The roots are reputed to be exceedingly narcotic, but an alcoholic extract of one drachm of the root given to a small dog produced no perceptible effect. Meconopsis Nepalensis is a Nepal plant, and is de scribed as being extremely poisonous, especially its robts. Meconopsis Wallichii, Hooker, is the blue poppy of Mount Tonglo, on the Sikkim Himalaya at 12,000 feet. — Eng. Cyc.; O'Sh. ; Cleghorn ; Royle's Rim.
MED or Medi, a Scythic tribe that colonized the Panjab. General Cunningham says the Med or Mand are almost certainly the representatives of the Mandrieni, who lived near the Mandrus river, to the south of the Oxus ; and as their name is found in the Panjab from the beginning of the Christian era downwards, he concludes that they must have accompanied their neighbours the Jatii or Jat on their forced migrations to Ariana and India. In the classical writings the name is found as Medi and Manduevi, and in the Muham madan writers as Med and Mand. The tribe may have been transplanted to the banks of the Indus, when the Medo-Persian empire extended that far east ; or they may have been pressed south easterly by intruding Scythians, or have left during the persecution of the Magi, who con stituted one of the six tribes of Medes. Admitting that the Jartaka of the Mahabharata and the Puranas represent the Jat, the Madra also men tioned there must be regarded as representing the Med, confirming thereby the antiquity and synchronisms of these two races on the banks of the Indus. The Med devoted themselves to a pastoral life, repeatedly invaded the territories of the Jat, putting them to great distress, and com pelling them to cross the river ; but subseqpently the Jat, being accustomed to the use of boats, re crossed and defeated the Med, whose country they plundered. They made up their differences, and asked Daryodhana, king of Hastinapur, to send them a king, and he sent his sister Dassal (Dahsalu), wife of Jayadratha, who made Aska landha her capital, perhaps the Uch of later times. After a reign of more than 20 years, Jayadratha was killed on the fatal field of Thanesar, and his widow burned herself on his funeral pile. On the same field the Bharata dynasty was extinguished. The earliest historical notice of the Med race is by Virgil, who calls the Jhelum, Medus Hydaspes. This epithet is explained by a statement of Vibius Sequester, which makes the Hydaspes flow past the city of Media. This is the same place as Ptolemy's Euthymedia, which was either .on or neiar the same river, and above Bukephala. Also in the Peutingerian tables, which are not later than A.D. 250, the country on the Hydaspes is called Media. From this evidence, the Medi or Med were in the Panjab as early at least as the time of Virgil, or B.C. 40-30. Shortly thereafter,
about B.C. 30-20, the Med seem to have been forced southwards into Sind, where the Jat long resented their intrusion. The Erythrrean Periplus mentions that about A.D. 100, the rulers of Minnegara were rival Parthians, who were mutually expelling each other. When the Muhani madan,s arrived in Sind, they found the Med or Maud firmly established there along with their former rivals the Jat. Ibn Henkel describes the Mend of his time, about A.D. 977, as occupying the banks of the Indus from Multan to the sea, and to the desert between Makran and Fambal. Masudi, who visited India A.D. 915-16, calls them residing in Sind. During the period of the Arab occupation of Sind, Muhammad Kasim is represented as making peace with the Med of Saurashtra, seafarers and pirates, with whom the men of Basra were then at war. In the Muham madan period, Amran, the Barmekide governor of Sind, directed an expedition against the 31ed, advancing from several directions, and reduced them to great extremities. Nevertheless, in the time of Masudi, the inhabitants of Mansura were obliged continually to protect themselves against Med aggressions. They have remained in this locality ever since, for there can be no doubt but that they are now represented by the Mer of the Aravalli range to the east of the Indus, of Katty awar to the south, and of Baluchistan to the west. The name of Mer or Mand is still found in many parts of the Panjab, as in Meror of the Bari and Rechna Doabs, in Mere, Mandra, and Mandanpur of the Sind-Sagar Doab, and in Mandali of Multan, offering strong evidence that the Med or Mer were the first Indo-Scythic conquerors of, and once the dominant race in, the Panjab. Meris or Mceris was the king of Pattala who, on the approach of Alexander, abandoned his capital and fled to the mountains ; he was possibly a /tier. The Mer of the Aravalli are but little advanced beyond the tract where the Med, a. thousand years ago, were a numerous and thriving popula tion. Their brethren the Mena can be traced in their original seats to the bank of the Indus, and Mer still reside in Kattyawar, the Saurashtrian peninsula, which was the nursery of the piratical expeditions; and the Mer, Mena, and Med seem identical. lied still exist both to the E. and W. of the Indus, and those on the coast, unable to practise piracy, after the manner of their ancestors, follow the occupation of fishermen. To the east they are found roving on the borders of Sind and Jodhpur, the seats of their occupation during the Arab period ; and to the west they are found in the little ports of Mekran, from Sanmiani to Charbar, divided into the clans of Gazbur, Hor mari, dellarzai, and Chelmarzai. When the Muhammadans first appeared in Sind, towards the end of the 7th century, Zath (Jat) and Med were the chief -population of the country. But the original seat of the Med or Medi was in the 'Panjab proper, from which Mr. Thomas concludes that the original seat of the Jatii or Jat colony was in Sind.—Ellioes History of India.